Focusing in on a specific time in Alfred Hitchcock’s life – during 1959 and the filming of PSYCHO – Anthony Hopkins morphs into the role of Hitchcock (albeit under alot of latex) while Helen MIrren takes on the role of Alma Reville, his loving and influential wife and apparent muse to his work.
Hitchcock has just wrapped NORTH BY NORTHWEST with forty-six movies, sixty years of life and zero Oscars to his name, when the press questions whether he should quit while he’s ahead. In a witty and intelligent screenplay written by John J. McLaughlin “Hitch” and Alma spit snappy dialogue about what might be best for Hitchcock’s future, but never really consider what matters for Alma. Until Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston) comes into the picture with a story idea that doesn’t interest Hitchcock, but which Ama believes in. Suddenly she finds herself derailing to a new creative source.
But Hitchcock is fixated on Pyscho, a book that every other studio has passed on. It might be considered low-budget shock horror, but what if it’s done well? Paramount refuses to finance the film, but Hitch is determined to make it anyway. Enter Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) cast in the lead role that will become the infamous shower scene which doesn’t make the studio’s parental guidance board happy. After all, back in the day one couldn’t show a toilet being flushed let alone a naked woman showering. Though rest assured, she won’t be naked. She’ll “be wearing a shower cap” says Hitch.
Jessica Biel plays the gorgeous brunette Vera Miles who could have been a huge star if only she’d stuck by Hitch and their apparent affair, but Hitchcock has a thing for blondes. And without her wig she’s only a mere brunette, or so she points out.
And besides, our peeping Tom Hitchcock is best as a voyeur, one of those great artists who is impossible to live with, but alas, he does adore his wife. And the movie entertains us immensely with its stylized art-house brilliance. As a man he was difficult. As a director, Alfred Hitchcock was known for not having a hidden agenda. What you see is what you get with him though he best viewed his subjects via voyeurism…peep holes, and secret curtains, to find and release the psycho in all of us. ♔ ♕ ♚ ♛